8/25/12

RPG Project - 01 - Introduction

Today's Saturday, so here's a new post on programming/game stuff. This will basically outline a project I'm working on, my current progress on it, and what I consider to be the next steps.

This summer I discovered Love2d, a nifty little 2d game engine. It had a couple of advantages that I liked, like being cross-platform and easy to test(Just drag your project folder onto the program, and it'll run your game). It also uses Lua, a language that I hadn't really touched before then. Overall, I've found it quite enjoyable. Here's what I've done with it:

All summer, I've worked on one project: an old school RPG. Unfortunately, progress is really slow, and it's still very far from completion. That said, I DO have something to show for my work. It just isn't pretty.
First though, let's start off with my main goals for the project:

Build a nice retro RPG, leaning toward the Final Fantasy side of things rather than, say, Fallout.

As few screen transitions as possible. In other words, eliminate the world map in favor of a fast travel system of sorts, to go with heavy levels of exploration. A journey across a continent should feel like a proper trek.

Allow for the use of some skills outside of battle. This has always annoyed me a bit. In some games you can summon a gargantuan meteor from the heavens, but can't get past a tree. This might not be feasible, but I'll still give it some effort.

Allow for lots of character customization. Who doesn't like to fine tune a character to be just how they like it? I certainly do.

Those are my main overarching goals. Here's what I've accomplished in a month or two:

External map loading

Grid based movement

Random battles(but no combat yet)

Inventory and items

Text boxes, with full dialog trees in the works

A map editor

I think that's decent progress for a month or two. I'll end this with a screenshot of the main screen, as well as art of the only existing enemy.

Click to enlarge

The first enemy you might encounter, a dapper slime:

Click to enlarge

Since it appears to be some sort of RPG tradition, I just HAD to make the default enemy slimes. I think I'll keep the body exactly the same and just slap on different hats. I think it'll turn out rather silly.